Solid state memory devices have been used in data recorders for recording essential data or information useful in determining causes of crashes or other mishaps in aircraft and other vehicles. When a crash occurs, it is essential that the recorded information on board survive the crash and subsequent events including heat, cold, flame, debris impacts and fire that may afterwards ensue. Unfortunately, current methods for protecting data from catastrophic events in aircraft are not suitable for protecting digital video data stored in non-volatile memory devices. There is a need to provide a event proof memory module capable of storing a video recording that will survive blast and other catastrophic failures that may be caused by bomb blasts or other IED type devices. The retrieved video recording can be used to investigate and prosecute, if appropriate, the offenders that caused the catastrophic failure.
Shielding the memory unit of a vehicle digital data recorder system during a crash, for both mechanical and thermal shocks, presents extremely demanding design constraints. It is desirable to protect video digital data supplied to the memory unit recorded prior to the catastrophic event. In this regard, in order to preserve the digital data, the memory unit must be enclosed in a protective device configured and arranged to withstand excessive temperatures and to endure shocks and crushing and penetration forces experienced either on impact or during secondary impact with other portions or pieces of the vehicle.
Typical enclosures designed to meet these constraints are usually bulky, enclosures, which have large space, weight, and power requirements. These extreme requirements generally prohibit the use of most crash-survivable enclosures deployed simultaneously in a plurality of vehicles such as, general aviation aircraft, railroad passenger/cargo cars, buses, or cargo trucks, and other stationary sites.
A further disadvantage to current crash-survivable enclosures is that the identity of the stored data from a particular recording device is problematic when there are multiple devices in an immediate vicinity. A further disadvantage to current crash-survivable enclosures is that they are not configurable to the particular memory and imaging requirements for a specific class of catastrophic event without having to resort to a reconfiguration of the entire recording device.